Miranda Lawson is the prodigal daughter (nobodysperfect) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-08-21 20:19:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, isabela, miranda lawson, morrigan |
Who: Isabela and Miranda featuring Morrigan
What: Miranda dreams about the suicide mission and she doesn't come out unscathed.
When: July 27th
Where: Miranda's apartment, then the hospital
Warnings: Broken bones and a punctured lung suffered from debris partially crushing her, otherwise language is a given
The Suicide Mission had actually gone better than Miranda had anticipated. They saved the crew that got kidnapped, on Joker’s watch of course, and they made good time getting through the base. That human Reaper, however, had creeped Miranda out more than anything else she’d encountered in her life. And that had been the last straw. While Shepard was rigging the base to blow up, the Illusive Man had called and tried to sway Shepard into not destroying the base. When he pleaded with Miranda to stop Shepard, she refused and told him to consider that her resignation, then hung up on him.
But before they could escape, the human Reaper had come to life and they had to fight it, then in the chaos that ensued when the Reaper went down, Miranda had ended up getting practically crushed by debris from a broken platform. But they’d all managed to make an escape and actually came back alive from the Suicide Mission.
However, Miranda in the real world was nowhere near as lucky as her dream self. She had the injuries and did not have the luxury of medi-gel to magically fix it all. She had a couple broken ribs, one was at least pressing against a lung, she had a broken collarbone, and there was plenty of bruising across her chest that indicated something heavy had fallen on her. She woke up and gasped for air, but it was difficult because of the broken ribs.
She couldn’t breathe well enough to cry out to get Isabela’s help. She tried to move, but pain kept her from moving much. Trying her other arm, managed to knock the alarm clock off the bedside table and she seriously hoped it was loud enough to get Isabela’s attention. “Isabela,” she tried to call, though she doubted she was loud enough to be heard without someone pointedly listening for her.
Bela was usually a more light sleeper, especially since the dreams had kick started an inherent amount of paranoia in her. As a raider, one never knew when there was going to be a mutiny or an attack, and Isabela was always prepared to dance. That was, of course, completely thrown off lately thanks to getting drugged and chucked into the bay. Maybe getting a long night's rest was just what one needed to recover from those kinds of things, but it was annoying as hell.
Doubly annoying when your girlfriend good friend was nearly dying in bed next to you while you slept through it all. But Bela heard the alarm clock clatter to the floor, and Miranda's voice whispering something. Though what it was she said was hard to hear over the post-sleep fog.
Still, whatever it was sounded important, and Isabela cracked a yawn while rolling over to see... Miranda, looking like all hell. "Oh, what the fucking hell happened to you!?"
It looked like the ceiling had come crashing down on her, and Isabela repressed the instinct to look up and check. Instead, she started looking Miranda over. With that much bruising, something was broken.
Miranda couldn’t take deep breaths, and she was trying not to hyperventilate or panic because of that. But at least Isabela had woken up, that was definitely a relief. Better than having to resort to more desperate acts to try to wake her up.
“Fuck,” she cursed between shallow breaths. “Mission to the Collector Base with Shepard. It was coming apart. Got partially crushed.” She grunted in pain, teeth clenched and eyes pinched shut. “Ribs. I think my collarbone. Can’t tell. Just pain.” Miranda really hoped that was enough information for Isabela to have a better idea of where the trauma was. Her legs were fine, though just to ensure she didn’t have a spinal injury as well, she moved them. That was a relief.
Though she was definitely lamenting the fact that they didn’t have medi-gel here. That would fix her right up, good as new. But as it was, she was going to have to heal the old fashioned way. With an assist from her genetics that would help her heal faster than a normal person. But she’d still have to suffer through pain first.
"That Shepard, always getting everyone into trouble," Isabela muttered to herself, mostly because being grouchy and complaining meant she could push her own panic and worry aside. She could internalize over that and the why of it later. The why was especially more terrifying even than broken collarbones and ribs.
Bela knew how to do things like put arms in slings and dig bullets out and stitch up cuts, but broken bones were a completely different level of first aid training. "How could she drag you into some... Alien Hideout and then let you, her most precious teammate, get partially crushed? I'm going to partially kill her, I think..."
Before Miranda could try and answer that question Bela put a finger to her lips. "Don't speak. I think you've got a punctured lung. Try not to move, alright? I’m going to call an ambulance. I know you’d rather avoid a hospital but this is well beyond me."
Somewhere around there was a burner phone she'd bought after her own phone drowned off the pier. She hunted it down on the nightstand and dialed 911.
Miranda definitely tried to respond before Isabela put a finger to her lips and told her not to. Really, Shepard hadn’t let it happen. Miranda was fairly certain Shepard hadn’t escaped unharmed by the falling debris. The difference was the presence of medi-gel in the dreams.
She grunted in pain and didn’t move. She was fairly certain she couldn’t move, but she wasn’t going to try it again. Miranda pinched her eyes shut and clenched her teeth as she let out another curse in pain. Though of course when she closed her eyes, all she could see was that human Reaper and it made her blood run cold. Out of everything she’d seen and experienced in her dreams, that thing was definitely the creepiest and single-most bone-chilling thing. In reflex, Miranda reached out with her good hand and grabbed Isabela’s free hand, as though reminding herself that despite the injuries carrying over, her dreams had not actually happened here. She was not on the Collector Base that was about to blow up, but instead in her apartment with Isabela.
Even as she remained still, she was still only taking shallow breaths, though she was trying to not to exacerbate her breathing problems by hyperventilating. Though that was far more difficult said than done.
It didn't take a mind reader to understand that in the moment when Miranda clenched onto Bela's hand, she needed real and present physical comfort. Whatever had happened on that mission must have been crazy, but it wasn't like Miranda could give her the story. Especially not right now.
She quickly gave the details to the Operator on the other end, while her hand squeezed Miranda's as hard as possible. It was actually a hell of a grip. Bela's hands and arms had long since taken on the muscle tone of a duelist, and she knew that Miranda was tough enough to handle that. Maybe it was even more comforting that way.
When Bela was off the phone, she leaned down and smoothed Miranda's hair. "I'm no good at this, you know. I don't know how to comfort people who wake up half crushed and all of that. Hang in there, sweet thing. Help is on the way. I'll stay right here until they show, alright?"
And she did stay, right until the EMT's loaded Miranda up onto the stretcher. Then she took a few seconds to gather up some of Miranda's things and followed them all the way there.
Miranda definitely didn’t mind the tight grip. She herself had muscle and strength, she was just built more leanly in that respect. But she was no less strong for it. After all, she hadn’t had years of pole dancing for nothing. Not to mention her muscle tone from her dreams, but even that wasn’t quite like Isabela’s muscle and strength.
She nodded a little at Isabela’s words. When the EMTs arrived, she was both relieved because she could get some help, but also saddened because she had to let go of Isabela. The ride to the hospital was agonizing, but at least they gave her oxygen while doing preliminary treatment. Then there was further treatment once at the hospital.
X-Rays and other such things were taken to determine the exact injuries. A broken rib was the definite cause of the punctured lung, and steps were taken to rectify it all. Including a tube in between lungs to help drain the air out of her chest.
Finally, Miranda was in a recovery room and able to receive visitors after she came out of the anesthesia. They would keep her for observation, and transfer her to an actual room. Miranda felt like hell, and probably looked like hell, but that was the least of her worries.
“Am I dead? Because I feel dead. Damn it, Shepard,” she cursed.
It had been a few hours, hours that Bela had spent waiting in a hospital emergency room. Her very first experience with it had been the last one, but it was awful enough that she'd never cared to repeat it.
For Miranda, Bela was willing to do it anyway. She charged their phones, bought crappy hospital coffee, plundered some vending machines, and did anything else she could to bide her time and not think about it.
But really, what was she not thinking about? Oh, it was worry. That was that feeling. It tore her insides up worse than that other elusive feeling, which most people called 'guilt'. And maybe it was worse than that. Something deeper and gut twisting and generally, in her mind, completely life ruining.
Just for the moment though, Bela decided it was better not to let the fear of what she was feeling control her. Instead, she made sure she was there when Miranda awoke. "You're definitely not dead, though you sure did give it a go, didn't you?" Bela replied, from the chair next to her.
This was not where Miranda wanted to be, but she couldn’t help it. None of this hospital nonsense would have had to happen if she’d had medi-gel, but that was neither here nor there currently. She just really hoped that she’d be out of the hospital sooner rather than later. Even if she currently felt like death.
“Not my intention. Guess this is what happens when one fights a human Reaper and when it dies it takes down everything around it.” Providing that thing actually died and wasn’t just waiting to come back to life and haunt them. Miranda knew the thing would be haunting her for quite a while now.
She turned her head to look at Isabela. She was glad that she was there. “Though I think you and I have met our quota for nearly dying, don’t you think?” She quipped. Not that long ago, she’d been in Isabela’s position, scared and worried and wanting to fight everyone because Isabela had nearly died.
"And in the same month, too. Look at our luck, eh? At least there were no nasty human reapers for me to deal with." Whatever those were. Isabela was certain she'd heard Miranda and Shepard bandy the term about here and there, but she wasn't clear on what the entire situation was.
A human form of them didn't sound particularly good.
"That thing really messed you up. I'm still going to scold the hell out of Shepard for her part in this, by the way. How are you doing? Is there anything I can do for you? I've got your phone charged..."
“Believe me, you don’t want to deal with human Reapers. I’ll have nightmares about that thing for a while.” Miranda shuddered, which jarred her broken bones and she winced. “Oh, fuck, I shouldn’t do that.” She grumbled. She couldn’t even shift on the bed given her one arm was in a sling from the broken collarbone.
“You do that. Shepard deserves it sometimes.” She took a careful breath. “First of all, I need water. Second of all, I need to call Aria since I’m obviously not going to be working anytime soon. Then I should let Shepard know about this.”
"Seems like a shame, depriving all of your adoring masses of your glorious mostly naked visage. Back in my world we had potions and spells to cure these sorts of things. Something like that would be... really quite handy about now." Bela mused, while pulling Miranda's phone out of her pocket.
She held it over to Miranda to unlock it, "If you don't mind my poking through your contacts, I can probably do the phonecalls for you. I don't expect you actually want to try holding a phone up to your ear or texting just now."
“I’m pretty sure my body is currently mostly black and blue. No one wants to see that.” Not to mention it was broken. Miranda was just lucky she hadn’t gotten a spinal injury or even just been outright crushed beyond all saving. Though right now, death felt preferable to this.
“Go ahead,” she said, waving her good hand at Isabela. Miranda didn’t have anything embarrassing on her phone. Well okay, there may have been texts between Miranda and Shepard about a highly ill-advised liaison. Assuming Isabela wanted to dig that deep into Miranda’s phone. Though it probably said a lot that Miranda didn’t care if Isabela used her phone given how much of a paranoid control freak she was about her life. She didn’t trust people easily, and after the Niket debacle in the dreams, she was more paranoid about who to trust. But she trusted Isabela, and she trusted her enough to have full access to her phone.
"And you're not going to show it to anyone in that shape, either. I only meant- Well, I suppose I meant I wish we could snap our fingers and make you alright again." Bela mused. Make it all so it had never happened. Balls, what she wouldn't give to turn back time. Or perhaps fast forward it to some place and time where she had a ship again and nothing felt like awful squiggling butterflies inside.
Isabela let out a long sigh as she took the opened phone back, "You're not the only one who worries, you know?"
The phone was unlocked, but Isabela had no intention of sorting through Miranda's personal life. It was a mutual trust; Miranda knew how much Isabela valued her own privacy, too. She hit the text messaging button and searched for Shepard, then quickly tapped out a message. The message turned into a quick exchange of texts, and Bela clucked her tongue. "Well, your luck might be changing, kitten. Shepard just sent me a contact to someone who can help with your injuries."
Miranda looked at Isabela, not quite knowing if she should read anything into that or not. Even with the slip up after Isabela’s near-death experience, Miranda was doing everything she could to keep her feelings restrained. She didn’t want to push Isabela into anything she knew she didn’t want. She well knew that Isabela wouldn’t mind getting into her pants, but Miranda was beyond the point of being able to do that without strings being attached.
“Am I not?” She asked. Her mind was still in a bit of a haze from the drugs in her system. “This would’ve been rectified if medi-gel existed here.” She took a careful breath.
“Someone better than a doctor? Can they put me out of my misery?” It was said more casually, but Miranda was more than okay with it being something that actually happened. She didn’t like being confined to a bed and hooked up to machines like this.
"An actual... healer, of sorts. Not the type that arrives with medi gel. Probably a bit more like the type we'd find where I'm from. Spells and magic and such. Should be able to at least get you back on your feet, yeah?" Isabela replied, while tapping out a text to this person known as 'Morrigan'.
That was a rather ominous name. Come to think of it, she could have sworn she'd heard it before. Back somewhere in her dreams, she was certain of it. Right around the time she'd gotten up to all of those wondrous shenanigans with that warden. The Hero of Ferelden had much more to brag about than just slaying an Archdemon.
"I think we might actually share a universe, so that'll be... interesting. Though if I recall correctly we might all wish she'd put us out of our misery before she's gone."
And she wasn't answering that other question. Isabela hadn't run off yet, and not only because she no longer had a ship to help her escape. This denying everything was a different sort of running, but it was what she was capable of for the moment. Staying and caring, so long as no one stuck a label on it.
“Magic. Well it certainly beats just lying here until the doctors let me go home.” Miranda had no idea how long the doctor wanted to keep her in the hospital. But given the extent of her injuries, it would have to be long enough to determine that her lung had reinflated and was healing well enough to not cause anymore problems. It wasn’t easy to know that nothing could be done about her ribs. Those and her collarbone would just have to heal on their own. And that would be rather painful.
“Someone from your dream world? Interesting. Do you know her personally?” Miranda meant in the non-sexual way, but her mind wasn’t sharp enough to make the distinction vocal. So Isabela was free to interpret it however she wished to. The anesthetic was still lingering, and the pain medication was making her head fuzzy.
Miranda also had no wish to put a label on what she and Isabela were to each other. Well, nothing more than being friends, of course. She didn’t want to scare Isabela away. Miranda had come to rather enjoy her company. Which was a frightening thought all on its own because Miranda had kept everyone at such a distance for so long that the fact she trusted Isabela scared her.
"Well, I don't know her biblically, but I think we'd met before, yes. Back during that whole mess with the Archdemon and the Blight. A scrappy little Warden came to my defense one day at the Pearl, and played me at cards for the right to to learn to duel like me. We spent more than a few hours getting acquainted, if you know what I mean. Morrigan might have been in her party. Sounds familiar, anyway, but definitely far too cranky for all of that sexy business." Isabela shrugged a shoulder at that. Sex was a strange thing. She didn't think the woman she'd met was a stranger to it, but everyone had their likes and dislikes, and reasons for enjoying it.
"So it was more like a meeting in passing sort of thing, really. And... hopefully she'll be alright with stopping by here."
Someone Isabela didn’t know biblically? That was a little surprising, but Miranda didn’t say as much. No need to poke that at all. “It does sound a bit like a chance encounter, but if she can help, I am all for it. I am definitely not a good patient. In fact, I’m a terrible one.” She couldn’t sit in bed for however long it would otherwise take her to recover. Especially not when her father had been sniffing around and she needed to ensure Oriana stayed safe.
“I can pay her or owe her a favor or something, if that sweetens the pot.” Basically, Miranda would do anything to get out of the hospital sooner rather than later.
"I wouldn't know anything about that. You were the picture of grace and politeness when I was pulling a bullet out of you that one time. I think I even managed to catch a few curse words I hadn't learned before. And I used to hang around the docks all the time."
Isabela smirked at the memory, though, despite her complaining. It was a bad time for Miranda and she wouldn't have wished that situation on anyone, but being there for her had been fun. And Miranda in her element had actually been entertaining, aside from the injury.
She didn't dare actually joke about that part. Not after everything else. "I've added your bribery to the text, but I think she'll be along shortly."
Okay, that mention of being the picture of grace and politeness made Miranda laugh. And then she proceeded to grunt and groan in pain. Laughing was not a good thing to do right then.
“Oh, shit,” she grunted. “But thank you for that. I do have colorful language when I wish to use it.” Miranda could seem so proper, perhaps even stuck up at times, but she was able to let loose now and then and let herself use colorful language she typically didn’t use. She tended to go for the normal cursing, but when she was in pain and pissed off at her father, the barriers went down.
“Good.” Miranda was already starting to get a bit stir happy now. She hated being in pain, and she definitely didn’t want to be vulnerable like this with her father trying to get his greedy little hands on her and Oriana.
That was one of the things Isabela liked best about Miranda; She could appear so prim and proper, but underneath that carefully manicured facade was someone else entirely. Someone with claws. One of these days, Bela was going to find out if those claws came out during more pleasant and wild encounters, too. She just had to formulate a plan as to how.
"Right, so no more laughing. Just sit there looking honestly fabulous for having gone through all of this today, and we'll have you out of here in two shakes of... well, Morrigan's staff, I suppose."
“I’m certain I definitely don’t look fabulous.” Miranda hadn’t exactly looked in a mirror, but after going through surgery and being injured, she assumed she looked like crap. But Miranda’s version of ‘looking like crap’ was just a few steps away from ‘runway ready.’ “I look forward to getting out of here, though.”
Morrigan ensured that Maia and Kyra were fine before she headed to the hospital after exchanging texts with Isabela. To cut down on travel time, and also because she’d spent nearly nine months without shapeshifting, Morrigan turned into a crow and flew to the hospital. Or, at least, a place near it where she could turn back into a human without being seen. She headed to the room where Isabela and the patient in question were.
“Well, well, what have we here?” She queried as she gave a knock to the doorframe, looking in at the two women.
"An extremely fabulous looking biotic, despite her many injuries. And me." Isabela piped up, waving at Morrigan. The woman's arrival seemed extremely typical somehow, and Bela was one hundred percent certain now that this Morrigan was the Morrigan.
She smirked at her, but now wasn't the time for any of her wisecracks. Miranda needed the attention more than anything. "I was just telling her how amazing she looked for being crushed by something gigantic."
Once her presence was acknowledged, Morrigan stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. After all, she didn’t need to make a spectacle out of healing this woman. “I must say, you do look marvelously three dimensional for having been crushed,” she quipped.
“Ha ha, very funny,” Miranda grumbled a little. Though she could scarcely be flat with a figure like hers.
“Now, I can heal your worst injuries, though I warn you, I may not be able to heal them all.” After all, she could only cast so many spells before she needed to rest. And with a decided lack of actual lyrium to make lyrium potions from to replenish her ability to cast spells, she’d have to regenerate naturally.
“Focus on my punctured lung. And my ribs.” Miranda said. It was obvious which side was the affected one.
Morrigan moved over to Miranda’s bedside before looking over to Isabela. “Would you keep an eye out for doctors or nurses, or anyone who could potentially walk in without knocking?” After all, they didn’t need to be interrupted during this.
"I absolutely can." Bela replied, snapping up from where she'd been sitting. "Needed to give the legs a stretch anyway, so I'll just do some pacing and texting in the hallway. Consider it like an anti-doctor blockade."
Magic didn't exactly spook Isabela. Not like other people who were native to Thedas and tended to treat it like it was some godsforsaken curse, anyway. But if a medical professional walked in on whatever spells Morrigan was going to cast, there would definitely be no small amount of fear and misunderstandings. No one needed that kind of drama.
She slipped out the door as quickly as she could, so that Morrigan could get to work.
“I appreciate it.” Morrigan still had issue saying ‘thank you’ to people, but she was at least a little more of a people person than she had been. Or at least she felt that way. Her dreams had changed her, as had becoming a mother in this life. Even though it hadn’t been all that long since her daughter had been born, it was still a life-changing event. Once Isabela was in the hall running interference, she took a breath as she looked down at Miranda. “Alright, this will be painless, I assure you.”
“That’s good. I’m not a fan of being in pain.” Miranda quipped. She wanted out of there as quickly as possible.
Morrigan held her hands over Miranda’s torso. She concentrated and energy formed around her hands. It was gold in color, and the energy flowed out of her hands and into Miranda. This was one of the times that being a mage was a positive. Healing went faster, though Morrigan didn’t have enough in her to fully heal Miranda, but the worst damage could be taken care of.
It didn’t take all that long, but finally, the energy dissipated and Morrigan leaned back, feeling drained. “That is the best I can do.”
It may not have seemed like much, but Miranda could breathe easily again. Her collarbone was still a lost cause, but that was something she could deal with. Maybe. “Thank you. Really.” She pulled the oxygen tube out of her nose as she could breathe now.
“You are welcome. Hopefully that is enough for you to return to the comfort of home instead of remaining here. If you need more healing, do not hesitate to call me.” Morrigan jotted her phone number down and gave it to Miranda. “Now, I should be going. I need to rest.” She took her leave, stepping into the hallway. She looked tired now, and she drew in a breath to steady herself as she looked to Isabela. “She is better, though not all her injuries are healed. She should be able to go home now.”
Isabela tucked her phone into her pocket and nodded at Morrigan, before giving her an appraising look. The mage definitely looked drained, but Bela wasn't sure that was something she was supposed to remark on. At least, she wasn't sure that Morrigan would take an offer to help her out as anything less than an insult.
"You look like you're in for a nice long nap. Thanks for what you've done so far, though. Miranda's going to get to sleep in her own bed tonight, assuming her damned dreams let her, and that's worth quite a bit." Bela finally decided to say, while stepping closer to the door. She added, while dashing her eyes off to the side, "So, you know... you've got my gratitude and all."
It wasn't words she said very often.
Morrigan definitely preferred to not have help in exiting the hospital. Though she might have to call a taxi because she didn’t have enough in her to change into a crow and fly back home. “I am definitely headed for a nap.” Hopefully Maia wouldn’t mind taking Kyra for a while so she could recharge. She gave Isabela a nod. “You are welcome,” she responded. She then took her leave, letting Isabela get back to Miranda.
And speaking of the patient, Miranda was already disconnecting herself from the machines now that she could breathe on her own. Or at least disconnecting herself as much as she could. She was also sitting up in bed.
"Look at you, spry as ever." Bela commented, as she stepped through the door. She eyed Miranda for a few seconds, amused at the other woman's impatience, then decided to step in and help. She untangled some of the wires, while clucking her tongue scoldingly. "SHE said you weren't fully healed up, so why don't you take some care, eh? Wouldn't want to go re-puncturing things."
Miranda grunted a bit, mostly in response to her broken collarbone. “The only thing I’m in danger of re-puncturing is if a doctor comes in here and tries to hook me back up to these machines. And by that I mean I’d put them through the wall.” Miranda was in a mood, especially after dreaming about the Collector base. Put her injuries on top of that and she was definitely in a mood.
"I love it when you get so fiesty," Isabela quipped. There was a nearby bag with all of Miranda's personal effects in it, and she tucked that over her arm. "Maybe we should get you dressed. I think the hospital gown is supposed to stay here, and I don't think you'll fancy running out naked. Though I doubt anyone else would mind getting a good gawking in. You'd probably put them through a wall too."
Once that was settled, Bela figured she’d go and find a nurse to see about some discharge papers. Miranda definitely needed to be home and in a bed - assuming she’d even stay there. Miri had taken care of her, and she thought turnabout was only fair play.